Tuesday, May 26, 2015

This weekend a team from Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Los Angeles, myself, and hundreds from around the world came to Ensenada and Tijuana to build 25 houses to celebrate Homes of Hope's 25th anniversary. My team built a house in Ensenada for a single mother named Leonarda, her baby boy Kevin and her cousin Valentina. They were living in a 6 x10 tent. It was built with wooden sticks, a tarp and rocks lining the edges to hold the tarp down in the wind. They had a squatty-potty built outside of their tent that was four poles making a little square, that was wrapped with saran wrap for privacy. They also don't have a shower, these women said they stand on the side of their tent and wash themselves down with water they collected from the rain. Valentina took me inside their little shack and it left me speechless, I just couldn't believe they were living in place like this. Inside they had a pile of old carpet and clothes piled on one another and that is where they slept and ate if they had food. To be honest I think it was worse than the living conditions I saw in Kenya, which is really hard to believe because I had no idea this kind of poverty is just a 3 hour drive from LA. This type of poverty is literally right there the second you cross the boarder.

During the past three days I heard testimony after testimony of people who've lost their babies to exposure because the family had little to no shelter. I heard of a fathers getting bit by an animal leaving them unable to work, so many kids being robbed of their childhood, mothers being raped, families not being able to sleep because of the cold and rain. All of this because they don't have the safety of a house. But there were so many people who shared about Homes of Hope building them a house years and years ago and how their lives have completely changed! This was something I learned in Africa when I was working in the children's cancer ward, and God was reminding me of this again this weekend, and that is that He uses people from all over the world to answer other peoples prayers. He uses other people to bring a little piece of heaven to others just when they need it. My heart is so full of joy that I have the privilege to serve others around the globe and be the feet that brings hope and share God's goodness and love.

"I will always thank the Lord; I will never stop praising him. I will praise him for what he has done: may all who are oppressed listen and be glad! Proclaim with me the Lord's greatness; let us praise his name together! I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me; he freed me from all my fears. The oppressed look to him and are glad; they will never be disappointed. The helpless call to him, and he answers; he saves them from all their troubles." -Psalm 34:1-6

xx

The Crew

This was the little shack that the family was living in

Praying before we build

The first wall we put up

I had to post this because I look identical to my dad with that tool belt and shades!! HAHA

The Pacheco Familiá receiving their new home!

Surround yourself with people you want to be like <3

The crew praying for people as we wait in line to cross back over to America